Local activist becomes New York Times reporter for Danziger Bridge sentencing

Local left-wing activist Jordan Flaherty led a demonstration last summer celebrating the convictions of five New Orleans police officers in the shooting of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina. The demonstration was posted on YouTube; Flaherty begins speaking about the convictions about 1:40 into his remarks.

Times-Picayune archiveLocal left-wing activist Jordan Flaherty, who led a demonstration last summer celebrating the convictions of five New Orleans police officers in the shooting of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina, last week helped The New York Times cover their sentencing.

Last week, Flaherty helped to cover the sentencing of the five officers as a reporter for The New York Times. He was credited as a contributor to the newspaper's report.

When asked about Flaherty, the newspaper issued this statement Monday, attributed to Rick Lyman, Deputy National Editor:

"When our correspondent, Campbell Robertson, was unable to get into the courtroom to hear the announcement of the sentences, he was forced to ask other reporters, who were in the courtroom, to fill him in on what the judge had said. Jordan Flaherty, who had taken notes of what the judge said, agreed to share them with Campbell, who then confirmed all of them with other people who had been in the courtroom. So we are very confident in what we printed in the newspaper. We were unaware that Mr. Flaherty might have been involved in public protests involving the killings and, if we had known, we would not have used him."